


Spirituous

by perverse_idyll



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Community: hp_halloween, Friendship, Gen, Hot Spiced Drinks, Post-Canon, Regret
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-09
Updated: 2019-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-07 12:47:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21731287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perverse_idyll/pseuds/perverse_idyll
Summary: Minerva prefers not to drink alone.
Comments: 7
Kudos: 29





	Spirituous

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [Спиртные тени](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23679757) by [Dear_Madelene](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dear_Madelene/pseuds/Dear_Madelene)

> Double drabble written for raktajinos for the HP Halloween Fest 2019

***

For one of her first acts as headmistress, Minerva shatters the Mirror of Erised.

Thrifty by nature, she stores a piece in her rooms. Every Hallows' Eve, she props it in a chair and faces it across a candleflame. Hearthfire strong enough to melt ice throws phoenix wings of heat at the glass.

She pours two goblets of hot buttered brandy steaming with cinnamon and brown sugar. A blackened hand reaches out of the background, and the reflected drink floats to blood-bearded lips. Minerva mirrors each buttery sip; the sweet fumes thaw her soul.

Gradually the hand unblackens. With curse-free flamboyance, Albus swirls away, his beard scattering starlight behind him.

Next, piping hot cranberry Benedictine punch. Shrouded in fog, a ghastly shape with a gory throat and pitchblack eyes appears. Minerva waits for the peppercorns to tickle that great horn-beak nose, for his obsessive brain to start cataloguing the liqueur's twenty-seven herbs and spices.

Severus raises the vessel of blood-coloured punch and tips it down his throat. The wound smokes and heals, fading. As does he.

Maybe next year the three of them can drink the night away. Forgive, forget. Together. Minerva dries her eyes and toasts the empty mirror.


End file.
